Hi, just "setup" GUIminer/Electrum/Slush'sPool and have questions!

[TrevorS]

I fired off GUIminer before setting up anything else so I presume that early ~300 "shares" are lost.  Got an account with mining.bitcoin.cz and it has a bitcoin address field ("for receiving rewards") that I don't know how to complete.  Electrum provides a public key, but it's far longer than the bitcoin address field.  

Having watched GUIminer awhile and trying to verify the mining.bitcoin.cz status, I find them inconsistent.  What is the relationship between the miner's report of what appears to be running accepted shares and mining.bitcoin.cz "current shares" and apparently running "score"?  (I was a little concerned abut the hash mining rate difference, but it gradually converged.)

Can anyone help me out with this?  Thanks!

========================LATER==========================

I take it back -- the mining.bitcoin.cz "apparently running" "score" isn't running at all.  It builds some and then it collapses (just not as quickly as the "current shares")!  So how is my tally represented and how confirmed?  I see no consistency in reporting!

[byt411]

I fired off GUIminer before setting up anything else so I presume that early ~300 "shares" are lost.  Got an account with mining.bitcoin.cz and it has a bitcoin address field ("for receiving rewards") that I don't know how to complete.  Electrum provides a public key, but it's far longer than the bitcoin address field.

Your addresses are under the "Receive" tab.

Having watched GUIminer awhile and trying to verify the mining.bitcoin.cz status, I find them inconsistent.  What is the relationship between the miner's report of what appears to be running accepted shares and mining.bitcoin.cz "current shares" and apparently running "score"?  (I was a little concerned abut the hash mining rate difference, but it gradually converged.)

Can anyone help me out with this?  Thanks!

========================LATER==========================

I take it back -- the mining.bitcoin.cz "apparently running" "score" isn't running at all.  It builds some and then it collapses (just not as quickly as the "current shares")!  So how is my tally represented and how confirmed?  I see no consistency in reporting!

The reason for the above is that you are using GUIMiner with your GPU. You need to understand that Bitcoin Mining these days are done by powerful ASICs, and not your home computer.

[TrevorS]

Your addresses are under the "Receive" tab.

Thanks, but there are five listed.  Do you just choose one at random or is there a protocol?

Having watched GUIminer awhile and trying to verify the mining.bitcoin.cz status, I find them inconsistent.  What is the relationship between the miner's report of what appears to be running accepted shares and mining.bitcoin.cz "current shares" and apparently running "score"?  (I was a little concerned abut the hash mining rate difference, but it gradually converged.)

Can anyone help me out with this?  Thanks!

========================LATER==========================

I take it back -- the mining.bitcoin.cz "apparently running" "score" isn't running at all.  It builds some and then it collapses (just not as quickly as the "current shares")!  So how is my tally represented and how confirmed?  I see no consistency in reporting!

The reason for the above is that you are using GUIMiner with your GPU. You need to understand that Bitcoin Mining these days are done by powerful ASICs, and not your home computer.

I'm quite aware that two or more generations of dedicated hardware have been developed and deployed for the purpose of bitcoin mining, but that doesn't in and of itself mean that PC resources (both CPU and GPU) no longer function correctly.  In other words, I don't see how your "explanation" actually explains anything!

Let me try asking it differently.
1. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "current shares" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?
2. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "score" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?

[byt411]

Your addresses are under the "Receive" tab.

Thanks, but there are five listed.  Do you just choose one at random or is there a protocol?

Having watched GUIminer awhile and trying to verify the mining.bitcoin.cz status, I find them inconsistent.  What is the relationship between the miner's report of what appears to be running accepted shares and mining.bitcoin.cz "current shares" and apparently running "score"?  (I was a little concerned abut the hash mining rate difference, but it gradually converged.)

Can anyone help me out with this?  Thanks!

========================LATER==========================

I take it back -- the mining.bitcoin.cz "apparently running" "score" isn't running at all.  It builds some and then it collapses (just not as quickly as the "current shares")!  So how is my tally represented and how confirmed?  I see no consistency in reporting!

The reason for the above is that you are using GUIMiner with your GPU. You need to understand that Bitcoin Mining these days are done by powerful ASICs, and not your home computer.

I'm quite aware that two or more generations of dedicated hardware have been developed and deployed for the purpose of bitcoin mining, but that doesn't in and of itself mean that PC resources (both CPU and GPU) no longer function correctly.  In other words, I don't see how your "explanation" actually explains anything!

Let me try asking it differently.
1. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "current shares" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?
2. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "score" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?

Choose the address you want, it doesn't matter. I also suggest you go to options and you deactivate change addresses, if you don't care about anonimity.

As far as I understand, GUIMiner thinks it finds shares and submits them, but they are usually at difficulty 1, while pools now have a minimum of difficulty 2. This makes The shares that GUIMiner report useless.

[TrevorS]

Thanks, but there are five listed.  Do you just choose one at random or is there a protocol?

Choose the address you want, it doesn't matter. I also suggest you go to options and you deactivate change addresses, if you don't care about anonimity.

Thanks, I chose the first in the list.  I guess the options item you refer to was dropped awhile back, the current revision doesn't list it.  If I used a different user name on every forum I access, I'd never be able to remember them.  I really don't care if someone figures out who I am in the BTC world .

1. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "current shares" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?
2. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "score" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?

As far as I understand, GUIMiner thinks it finds shares and submits them, but they are usually at difficulty 1, while pools now have a minimum of difficulty 2. This makes The shares that GUIMiner report useless.

Interesting!

I observe that GUIMiner really does maintain a running share tally, but it also displays an adjacent field in parentheses that represents the last hour's shares.  That number is similar (not the same) to the account "current shares" and so I'm guessing both represent an hour period, though starting at different times.

I'm also thinking that an account "score" reset may relate to the time at which a block ("round") was completed, either by my pool or another.  If my pool, then I get some credit ("pending award from unconfirmed blocks"), otherwise, it's back to ground zero.  This suggests several blocks are solved in a 24 hour period.

Are my inferences correct or is there a better explanation?

[byt411]

Thanks, but there are five listed.  Do you just choose one at random or is there a protocol?

Choose the address you want, it doesn't matter. I also suggest you go to options and you deactivate change addresses, if you don't care about anonimity.

Thanks, I chose the first in the list.  I guess the options item you refer to was dropped awhile back, the current revision doesn't list it.  If I used a different user name on every forum I access, I'd never be able to remember them.  I really don't care if someone figures out who I am in the BTC world .

1. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "current shares" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?
2. How does mining.bitcoin.cz account "score" relate to GUIMiner "accepted" shares?

As far as I understand, GUIMiner thinks it finds shares and submits them, but they are usually at difficulty 1, while pools now have a minimum of difficulty 2. This makes The shares that GUIMiner report useless.

Interesting!

I observe that GUIMiner really does maintain a running share tally, but it also displays an adjacent field in parentheses that represents the last hour's shares.  That number is similar (not the same) to the account "current shares" and so I'm guessing both represent an hour period, though starting at different times.

I'm also thinking that an account "score" reset may relate to the time at which a block was solved, either by my account pool or another.  If my account pool, then I get some credit ("pending award from unconfirmed blocks"), otherwise, it's back to ground zero.  This suggests several blocks are solved in a 24 hour period.

Are my inferences correct or is there a better explanation?

The score is a complex calculation, it should be written somewhere on the site or in the forums. Try looking at the news and reading when it was implemented, I think it says it there.
Also, in Electrum, in the right-bottom corner, there is a preferences thing. Click it, and uncheck change addresses.

[TrevorS]

Thanks, I chose the first in the list.  I guess the options item you refer to was dropped awhile back, the current revision doesn't list it.  If I used a different user name on every forum I access, I'd never be able to remember them.  I really don't care if someone figures out who I am in the BTC world .

Also, in Electrum, in the right-bottom corner, there is a preferences thing. Click it, and uncheck change addresses.

OK, so I clearly don't understand what the function actually is of that change address check-box.  Is the idea that whenever a message is received by the wallet via the currently selected address, it's discarded and set to a new one?  If so, I presume the new one is automatically communicated to my pool account replacing the one I initialized with (presuming I didn't lock it that is)?

I observe that GUIMiner really does maintain a running share tally, but it also displays an adjacent field in parentheses that represents the last hour's shares.  That number is similar (not the same) to the account "current shares" and so I'm guessing both represent an hour period, though starting at different times.

I'm also thinking that an account "score" reset may relate to the time at which a block was solved, either by my account pool or another.  If my account pool, then I get some credit ("pending award from unconfirmed blocks"), otherwise, it's back to ground zero.  This suggests several blocks are solved in a 24 hour period.

Are my inferences correct or is there a better explanation?

The score is a complex calculation, it should be written somewhere on the site or in the forums. Try looking at the news and reading when it was implemented, I think it says it there.

Thanks, I'll look for that!  How about my other observations/conclusions -- are they valid?

[byt411]

Thanks, I chose the first in the list.  I guess the options item you refer to was dropped awhile back, the current revision doesn't list it.  If I used a different user name on every forum I access, I'd never be able to remember them.  I really don't care if someone figures out who I am in the BTC world .

Also, in Electrum, in the right-bottom corner, there is a preferences thing. Click it, and uncheck change addresses.

OK, so I clearly don't understand what the function actually is of that change address check-box.  Is the idea that whenever a message is received by the wallet via the currently selected address, it's discarded and set to a new one?  If so, I presume the new one is automatically communicated to my pool account replacing the one I initialized with (presuming I didn't lock it that is)?

I observe that GUIMiner really does maintain a running share tally, but it also displays an adjacent field in parentheses that represents the last hour's shares.  That number is similar (not the same) to the account "current shares" and so I'm guessing both represent an hour period, though starting at different times.

I'm also thinking that an account "score" reset may relate to the time at which a block was solved, either by my account pool or another.  If my account pool, then I get some credit ("pending award from unconfirmed blocks"), otherwise, it's back to ground zero.  This suggests several blocks are solved in a 24 hour period.

Are my inferences correct or is there a better explanation?

The score is a complex calculation, it should be written somewhere on the site or in the forums. Try looking at the news and reading when it was implemented, I think it says it there.

Thanks, I'll look for that!  How about my other observations/conclusions -- are they valid?

I have no idea as to if your conclusions are valid, but the thing is that regardless of the truth, the truth is that you won't get more than a few satoshi anyway.

Change Addresses:

Every time you send bitcoins to someone, Electrum will also send the change to another address you have (Under the "change" column). For example;
You have an unspent output of 1 BTC. You have a total of 3 BTC in address "1hello".
You send 0.5 BTC to me, to my "1Cb" address. The remaining 0.5 BTC from your unspent output is sent to another change address of yours, "1bye".
This ends up with this:
1hello - 2 BTC
1Cb (Mine) - 0.5 BTC
1bye - 0.5 BTC

It is very confusing to newbies, and many think that their BTC got stolen, but in reality it's a complicated anonymity feature that makes people confused. If you don't want to be anonymous and all that, simply don't use change addresses.

[TrevorS]

Been running my GPU for about 2.5 days now and it's pretty clear it'll be awhile before anything gets transmitted to my wallet.  Decided to dump Electrum and go "My Wallet", no transaction fee (can't afford a fee).  This whole thing is truly an education.  Ordered a used ASIC device and will see if I can get it running under GUIminer, that'll shut down my GPU -- too expensive to run, had enough experience with that from SETI and briefly BOINC early 2000's, 'course, those were CPU, not GPU intensive!

Am very impressed with GPU parallel computation Vs CPU generic computation -- had no idea!  If only my video rendering apps supported GPU as well as CPU computation !  Maybe later (passage of time)?

[byt411]

Been running my GPU for about 2.5 days now and it's pretty clear it'll be awhile before anything gets transmitted to my wallet.  Decided to dump Electrum and go "My Wallet", no transaction fee (can't afford a fee).  This whole thing is truly an education.  Ordered a used ASIC device and will see if I can get it running under GUIminer, that'll shut down my GPU -- too expensive to run, had enough experience with that from SETI and briefly BOINC early 2000's, 'course, those were CPU, not GPU intensive!

Am very impressed with GPU parallel computation Vs CPU generic computation -- had no idea!  If only my video rendering apps supported GPU as well as CPU computation !  Maybe later (passage of time)?

What do you mean? "My wallet"? Do you mean blockchain.info? If so, transactions still require a fee, it's a network thing.
And no, ASICs won't work with GUIMiner.

[jjc326]

The issue with the "score" took me a while to figure out too. It's based on some unique algo that slush uses. Basically the more shares you find closer to when a bitcoin block gets found by the pool the more you'll earn. That's why it looks like your score is "collapsing". If your miner stops submitting shares for a while (not sure how log now but it's probably pretty fast now) then TOR score drops fast, even back to zero. So you need to mine consistently there to make sure you get a reward.